The Commander of 81 Military Intelligence Brigade, Victoria Island, Lagos, General Ahmed Taiwo disclosed that soldiers stationed at Lekki Tollgate used both live and blank ammunition on October 20, 2020.
This comes after previous testimonies that the Army was never there and later that only blanks were fired. He said the soldiers took along the live ammunition, as a means of defence, to the protest ground.
Mr Taiwo, in his testimony, said some military men that operated at the Lekki toll gate were indeed armed, he, however, claimed that only the blank bullets were shot in the air. He made this statement on Saturday in front of Lagos state Judicial Panel of Inquiry, in defence of The Nigerian army accused of allegedly killing EndSARS protesters.
The council for EndSARS protesters Mr Adesina Ogunlana and Messrs Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN) asked General Taiwo if the soldiers went to the protest ground with guns, he responded that the soldiers were carrying rifles and not actual guns.
On further questioning by Olumide-Fusika, Mr Taiwo explained that some soldiers definitely carried live bullets in case they were compromised, but the soldiers in the video that went viral were using blank bullets.
When further asked what he noticed when he visited the toll gate, the Army General claimed to not have seen signs of gunshots and maintained the stance that nobody died that day.